Post by: cdub1988 on November 09, 2003, 09:48:08 PM
I was out in the garage today and had resolved myself to try and build a PC and install Linux on it for my son and then I began thinking I may give the 9600 another shot with a different SCSI drive (actually the one in it now is very small, but I have a share on my old 6500 that I gave to my son, so I have space) and tried it out.
Lo and behold, to my surprise, I was able to boot the machine, install OS 9 and it is running without a freeze. I do suspect a faulty drive (the original was a 4GB that I had swapped into my son's 8500) and his box died.
It all worked out fantastic. though, and am very happy with this box.
Take care, all.
Chris
Post by: Bernie on November 09, 2003, 09:56:34 PM
Get it running a PCI G3 upgrade card. It's still worth it for the 9600. Really
Post by: krissel on November 09, 2003, 10:55:48 PM
Which processor is in there? 350 ?
If so, it is a pretty fast machine for the pre-G3 era. In fact, when my PB was new it only had a 266 G3 in it and the 9600's 350 more than equaled it in speed. In other words, if you do consider a G3/4 be sure it is not one of the lower mhz or you won't see much of a difference. I eventually upgraded both prcessors for use with graphic software but for normal everyday tasks that machine is a warrior.
Put a fast RPM disk and extra RAM in it if you can (interleaved) and it will fly.
Post by: cdub1988 on November 10, 2003, 09:48:25 AM
I can't do anything with it, but I'm just blessed to have it working. It's a 9600/200 with 400MB and a 1GB HD in it, but it does have a two-port FW & USB card to run our scanner and we're running LocalTalk Bridge to allow our son to spool to the HP.
It's working well with exception of several Type 11 and 2 errors while running iCab.
Not sure if that's indicative of a bad memory chip or what.
This box has a mixed bit of sticks (Viking, SEC, others), so that could be totally likely.
Hoping it's not, because I don't want to have to troubleshoot that - it's such a tedious thing.
But hey, if I hafta, I hafta.
It's a fun box, and definitely built for expansion.....
Take care, all.
Chris
Post by: cdub1988 on November 12, 2003, 08:14:21 AM
A quick question, since I've not read or messed with interleaving of RAM.
What is it and what do I need to do?
I keep getting a lot of Type 1, 2, 3 and 11 errors, so I'm wondering if that has some bit to do with it.
I honestly probably won't get around to messing with it much, I was just wanting to know for reference purposes. But in the odd occasion I have any time, I may try to work it out.
Thanks!
Chris
Post by: krissel on November 13, 2003, 11:54:48 PM
Interleaving means putting like RAM chips in slots that correspond to each other. For instance you would put a 128 chip in A1 and a 128 chip in B1, a 64 chip in A2, a 64 chip in B2, etc.
The best chance of proper interleaving is if the two chips are exactly the same, but I have used chips from different manufacturers as long as they were the same size. Presently I have all 128 chips and since most are from the same manufacturer they are automatically interleaved in all the slots. I did have one chip go bad and removed it but I still have the 11 others= 1.37G.
If you can successfully interleave you can get up to a 15 percent increase in speed according to some old data.
As to the errors, they could be related to the RAM but software troubleshooting is a first attempt.
Here's a page which explains many typical errors in 9.
Type 1, 2 errors
This page will give you an idea of how to troubleshoot the browser errors.
Web browser errors
And this will cover Type 11
Type 11 error
All those are very common in 9 and can often be remedied by dumping some prefs, increasing memory allotment or a simple reinstall of the OS. As a last resort, try putting in just one RAM chip at a time to see if you get the problem. You're right, that is the teadious way, so try the other possibilities first. I spent nearly two days testing chips before I found out which RAM chip of the 12 was bad. UGh.
At least memory is much cheaper than it used to be. Remember spending a couple hundred dollars for 64 chips? Yikes.
Have fun.
Post by: cdub1988 on November 14, 2003, 10:26:59 AM
It's more of an issue that I get certain apps that die like that.
Outlook Express in particular.
Switched to Eudora and haven't crashed like that since.
Not sure if it was just faulty programming or what.
Regardless, it seems to be working OK.
That's pretty much what I imagined interleaving was. I don't have time to mess with pulling the sticks. I guess if I'm forced to do that, I will, but for now, I'll deal.
Thanks for the digs, Kris.
Take care.
Chris
Post by: cdub1988 on November 15, 2003, 05:30:40 PM
Just wanted to update you all on the progress.
Was forced to get inside and install the old 4GB drive that I thought was bad (came to find out it was a misplaced desktop picture by one of my young ones - pointing to a bad path and it had crippled the system), so I installed it and while I was in there, setup the sticks interleaved with exception to two stragglers that were left that I put in the remaining two banks separately.
Turned off that desktop picture, fired up the LAN connection to his box, copied his files, dumped them off this box, and now I'm running extremely happily on a fairly clean 9.1 system on the 4GB drive and have plenty of space for me to work and install into now. WOO HOO!
Take care and thanks for the tips.
Chris (an extremely happy 9600 owner)
P.S. - I'm actually quite impressed at this thing for being the stock 200 604 chip.
Course, it's backed up with a little RAM (400MB).
Take care.
Chris
Post by: krissel on November 15, 2003, 07:49:01 PM
Long may the 9600s run...
Post by: Gary S on November 15, 2003, 08:10:20 PM
Somehow I thought you were going to find the time.......
Post by: cdub1988 on November 17, 2003, 03:57:45 PM
Yeah, it really is a nice box. Really expandable.
Gary S -
Am I that predictable?
Take care, all.
Chris